Filming has just started on Series 7 of Doctor Who in Cardiff. This series will see the last days of the Ponds with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill returning for their final, rollercoaster voyage with The Doctor. Amy and Rory have been at the Doctor's side for more than two series but what will he do after their heartbreaking departure?

On returning for his third series as the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith says: "It's thrilling and exciting to be back and working with two of my closest friends."

Karen Gillan adds: "It's just brilliant to be back on the TARDIS with Matt and Arthur for our craziest adventures yet."

Series 7 will then see a dramatic turn of events when The Doctor meets a new friend. Prepare yourselves for thrills, adventures and dramatic surprises as the show builds towards its enormous, climactic 50th anniversary year. Fourteen big, blockbuster-movie episodes - each a brand new epic adventure featuring new monsters and some familiar foes as you've never seen them before.

Sci-fi fans, prepare to begin freaking out. "Farscape" and "Stargate SG-1" star Ben Browder is set to guest star on "Doctor Who." According to the show's official magazine, Browder will appear in the third episode of the next season. The story, written by the BBC version of "Being Human" scribe Toby Whithouse, will be set in the Wild West, though it's filming in Spain. If you recall, last season's Western adventure was shot in Utah. "Doctor Who" will premiere it's seventh season in the fall of 2012, unlike earlier seasons, which premiered in the spring.

It's a reunion that Terry Nation would be proud of ... probably as long as the colorful iDaleks stay home.

Steven Moffat is bringing every Dalek ever shown in "Doctor Who" to a single episode, the season premiere that kicks off this fall. And Moffat had to turn back to his old boss, former showrunner Russell T. Davies, for help.

Instead of building all the Daleks from over the years from scratch, producers risked the spoiler getting out by doing a casting call for about 20 to 30 prop Daleks, especially those that were used in the television show over the last 49 years. Davies provided a grey and black Dalek that he has kept in his Manchester home since leaving the series in 2009.

That joined a bunch of other Daleks, primarily coming from the Doctor Who Experience. That attraction, which features sets and props from the iconic series, closed its doors in London in February, and is expected to re-open in Cardiff (where the series is currently filmed) this summer.

British tabloid The Sun boasts of its own Dalek prop that was used in a 1972 Jon Pertwee-era episode. However, by the time the newspaper found out about the casting call, the episode had been filmed and it was too late to use it.

"Doctor Who" currently is filming in New York, and is working on its final episodes before work starts on the Christmas special. It's that special where Jenna-Louise Coleman is expected to make her debut as the new companion to Matt Smith.

The Daleks have remained virtually unchanged as characters since their introduction in 1963 in an episode called "The Daleks" written by Nation. The creatures themselves are actually small mutated beings that control an military suit that would be equivalent to a tank.

Daleks are known for their desire to "exterminate," and to ensure that they are by far the dominant sentient species in the universe.

The Daleks had been a part of every season of "Doctor Who" since it returned in 2005 except for last season. In fact, the last appearance of the Daleks was in "The Big Bang," the Season 5 finale that aired in June 2010.

The seventh season of "Doctor Who" -- and the third to feature Smith -- will premiere this fall. It will feature, among other things, a split season over Christmas, as well as the departure of actors Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, who play married companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. They are expected to leave the show ahead of the Christmas break.

Actor David Warner is to guest star in an upcoming episode of Doctor Who.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine reports that the veteran actor will take a role in a story penned by Who stalwart, Mark Gatiss, which is part of the recording block currently being completed in Cardiff.

Warner has had a long and illustrious acting career appearing in films such as The Omen, Time Bandits, Tron, The Lost World, Titanic and Planet of the Apes. He has appeared in the Star Trek films The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country as well as playing Gul Madred in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although Warner has not appeared on television in Doctor Who before, he has lent his vocal talents to the series when he provided the voice of Lord Azlok in the animated adventure Dreamland, first shown in 2009. He has also appeared in many audio plays for Big Finish Productions, where he has played an alternative version of The Doctor.

The story, due for transmission in early 2013, will be the fifth script for the series by Mark Gatiss, whose last script, Night Terrors, was shown last year. Gatiss told Doctor Who Magazine he was thrilled to be writing for the Eleventh Doctor once more, this time alongside his new companion played by Jenna Louise Coleman. It will be directed by Douglas MacKinnon who directed The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky in 2008.

The story will also star Irish actor Liam Cunningham, who has appeared in a number of film and television productions including A Little Princess, First Knight, Jude, Dog Soldiers, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Clash of the Titans, The Guard and the BBC One science-fiction drama series Outcasts.

Two guest stars have also been confirmed for the previous episode recorded, the first to be filmed with Jenna-Louise Coleman. Written by Luther creator Neil Cross and directed by Jamie Payne, both of whom are making their début on Doctor Who, the episode will star Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine.

Scott is a Scottish actor who has appeared in films such as Enigma, Desperate Housewives and, recently, in My Week With Marilyn , while Raine is best known for playing the lead role of nurse Jenny Lee in the BBC1 drama series Call The Midwife.

BBC America are to broadcast four new special documentaries in the lead-up to their premiere of the next series of Doctor Who; forming part of their Supernatural Saturday themed evenings, the first documentary will be broadcast on Saturday 4th August:

9:00PM - THE SCIENCE OF DOCTOR WHO Explore the real life science behind the biggest concepts and most iconic ideas in the incredible Doctor Who universe.

The documentary will be preceeded by repearts of last year's documentaries, Best of the Companions, Best of the Monsters and Best of the Doctor from 6:00pm.

The following weeks will see documentaries on The Women of Doctor Who (11th August), The Timey-Wimey Stuff of Doctor Who (18th August), and The Destinations of Doctor Who (25th August).

The BBC have confirmed that the first official television trailer for Doctor Who's next series will air on Thursday 2nd August, around 8:00pm on BBC1, with a repeat the following week.

The trailer forms part of a series of promotions for shows that form the latest Original British Drama campaign that will run throughout the London Olympics coverage over the coming seventeen days.

As well as Doctor Who, the list includes Merlin, Hunted, Good Cop, Accused, The Secret of Crickley Hall, The Paradise, Ripper Street, plus the stalwart soap EastEnders. The 'series' of trailers kicks off from 28th July with a special "Bundle" compilation.

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, said:

BBC One drama offers audiences the most vibrant and most original home-grown drama in Britain today. This upcoming range of new drama titles are the very best of British, made with ambition and scale that I hope will capture the imagination of our audiences with the same spirit as the London 2012 Olympics.

Hmmmm...some tasty stuff in that there trailer, though it gives little away that we didn't already know...and of course we know that the second half of the season will be even more Top Top Secret than the first....